ot, or with the tip of your finger, or with a stick, and
it will at once curl up, to all appearances absolutely without life.

A gentleman[110] recently told me that he saw the following example of
letisimulation: One day, while sitting in his front yard, he saw a
caterpillar crawling on the ground at his feet. The grub crawled too
near the edge of a little pit in the sandy loam, and fell over,
dragging with it a miniature avalanche of sand. It immediately essayed
to climb up the north side of the pit, and had almost reached the top,
when the treacherous soil gave way beneath its feet, and it rolled to
the bottom. It then tried the west side, and met with a similar mishap.
Not discouraged in the least by its failure, it then tried the east
side, and reached the very edge, when it accidentally disturbed the
equilibrium of a corncob poised upon the margin of the pit, dislodged
it, and fell with it to the bottom. The caterpillar evidently thought
the cob was an enemy, for it at once rolled itself into a ball and
feigned death. It remained quiescent for some time, but finally "came to
life," tried the south side with triumphant success, and went on its way
rejoicing. This little creature evinced conscious determination and a
certain amount of reason; for it never tried the same side of the pit in
its endeavors to escape, but always essayed a different side from that
where it had encountered failure.

[110] Mr. George Mattingly, Owensboro, Kentucky.

Many free-swimming rotifers practise letisimulation when disturbed or
when threatened by what they consider impending danger. If a "pitcher
rotifer" (_Brachionus urceolaris_) be approached with a needle point, it
will cease all motion and sink; the same is true of the "skeleton
rotifer" (_Dinocharis pocillum_) and numerous others of this large
family. Again, if a bit of alga on which there is a colony of "bell
animalcules" (_Vorticellae_) be placed in a live box and then be
examined with a moderate power, they can be seen to feign death. The
rapidly vibrating cilia which surround the margin of the "bells" give
rise to currents in the water which can be easily made out as they sweep
floating particles toward the creatures' mouths and stomachs. If the
table on which the microscope rests be rapped with the knuckles, the
colony will disappear as if by magic. Now, what has become of it? If the
microscope be readjusted, a group of tubercles will be observed on the
alga; these are